Some Unbelievable Statistics About The GE Engine On The Boeing 777

While we always knew that the Boeing 777 was a mammoth achievement in aviation, a few incredible facts have been popping up today about its huge GE-90 engines that we wanted to share (Bangalore Aviation/The Atlantic via @bill_gross):

All of the engines on the Titanic delivered around 46,000 horsepower combined. Just one of the GE units on the 777 puts out over 111,000 horsepower. For a modern comparison, that is equivalent to the power of 1,110 of the Mazda2 we recently tested.

The engines are so large that they are almost the same diameteras the fuselage of the Boeing 737.

During takeoff, the engines are gulping about 2 MILLION cubic feet of air per minute. To put that into perspective, the Bugatti Veyron, one of the fastest cars in the world, takes in 45,000 cubic feet of air per minute at full speed. According to Top Gear’s speed test, that is how much air a human breathes in four days.

Each engine costs $24 million. For the price of one engine you could get this beautiful Swiss home and two engines would get you three 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossas, the most expensive car ever sold at auction.

The next time you are on one of these flying powerhouses, just keep in mind what it takes to get it in the air.